Something isn’t right.
I guess I’ll do my thought here then.
Proposal
What if we made scalded as a DoT a little stronger? Additionally, what if it was the only status effect that’s applied when you use an attack that can inflict it?
Background on the proposal
So, I was minding my own business earlier when I saw a YouTube video about scalded, and how it was flawed.
The person went over about how scalded wasn’t worth it for being an extra DoT applied after the burning from thermo, and how it was too weak to rectify.
Some of the points they made included:
- Scalded is literally just a copy of burning. Same damage percentages, but weaker due to the double DoTs change.
- Burning from thermo gets extinguished when you hit the target with a cold attack, rendering it almost useless. You are left with just scald burns, which is halved due to it being applied second.
- The conditions you need to get scalded are too specific.
- Good Impact damage is far better then having an extra status effect that does 6 or 7 damage per tick.
- Warlocks are the only builds who can reliably use this status, but there are so many other better options you could get that deal better immediate damage. Why should you go for a second mediocre DoT status effect when you could use just one and still have good damage with it?
- warlocks also have the ability to create stun statuses with their imbuements in a single hit. While stuns are niche they can be occasionally useful, like interrupting an attack by freezing them. Why use ice thermo for this dumb scald status when you could cause instant freeze with ice sailor?
You can see it’s a pretty flawed idea. With thermo, you apply a pair of status effects and then with a spell, you clear the stronger one leaving the weaker one that isn’t really doing much.
With sailor’s, you’re better but not by much. Scald is in a void here so it works at its best, but your heat magic (which almost all of them have a DoT) will have a halved DoT. Plus, I’m pretty sure with sailor’s natural soaking that status from magic is denied.
The changes
Increase the amount of damage that scalded does when it’s applied, up to something like 43% over 5 seconds. Why do I think this is fair?
Well, a point the video didn’t bring up is that you have to limit yourself to a specific magic-FS combo: you only have a handful of magics in the game to use, paired with only two fighting styles that can make it. And the fighting style is predetermined, too.
Since scalded is so rare and difficult to make, why not make it a better burning so there’s a better reason to use it? If scalded is the same thing as burning, then there’s little damage difference between fire leg and fire sailor’s (besides the speed of course)
I would also like to recommend something else, and that’s for scalded to be the only status effect that applies when you use a technique that scalds enemies.
This is because of the example earlier, in how scalded is the second DoT applied, and then the stronger burning effect is cleared by the cold magic, and you’re just left with weaker scald burns damaging the target. Making it so that the now-stronger scald effect is the only one that applies to the target now, and not having a potential burn made from thermo+something else come and intercede will be a really big help to cold-thermo scald builds.
Similar deal for sailor’s and a heat based magic too, because if soaked can block a heat-related DoT added later, that’s super annoying.
Reason to add/change
Scald builds have been too niche during the game’s lifetime. They’re made in circumstances that are too specific and what you get from them isn’t worth it. Especially when your most defining trait is just a reworded burning effect.
I say by making scalded stronger than burning (due to its specificity) and making it solitary when applied, we could make these unique builds come into play and actually be genuinely usable and very fun.