So some feedback about the Defiler.
I have been playing one for a bit now and in PVE it's pretty great. I enjoy its survivability, especially with summons (Undead of course).
But I can't help but feel in PVP specifically, they telegraph far too easily and their counters are glaring. NEP and Shadowshield being both of them (Yes you can pierce one slightly with the entropic).
The problem doesn't lie with the refunds, though having your harms replenish a little more readily would be nice. But its about the fact you are dealing a single, easily resistable, damage type. Other caster classes fall into this category as well so its not a problem with the Defiler specifically. But NEP is easily obtainable. (Potions of warding drop very often while writ working and often times they can be easily stacked, scrolls, wands, etc...)
NEP is not easy to remove either, often times taking two mord scrolls (requiring a lore 80 commitment). But no other spell or item in the game, other than NEP and Shadowshield, makes a character immune to that damage type. (Yes there are combo's one can do with spellswords and their shields + spell combos to get nearly immune). But I feel that this fact alone specifically makes Defilers so easily countered to anyone with any sort of consumable game.
So in order for Defilers to deal damage to an opponent they must overcome the following. Touch AC > Spell Resistance > Spell Shield (Mantle, Shadowshield) > NEP , All of this to get one hit of (hypothetically speaking) 324 damage off. Insert that's a lot of damage gif.
Now this is great damage. I do not dispute that. But like most casters, it feels incredibly unreliable to pull off. The main mechanic of the class....Is completely unreliable....
I do have some suggestions, I'm sure there could be some tweaking with the AB that defilers can get to help circumvent some of the massive amounts of dodge stacking in the game (looking at you Divine shield). However, most of my suggestions revolve around adding more reliability and versatility to give the Defiler some options.
1: NEP changes - Give NEP a DR cap like every other resist elements spell. Pure immunity isn't around for elemental damage for a reason.
2: Shadowshield - Let Defilers pierce Shadowshield to SOME degree, this spell is far too common in scrolls and this is literally a hard counter giving, again, complete immunity to negative energy. Again, the immunity issue.
3: Defiler options - Right now the only two viable domains are Death and Suffering for their stacking effect. It's a cookie cutter issue. Give some domains some flavor so a Defiler could change their harms to poison, for pestilence domain, or Acid even. There is a lot of potential here.
4: Short Ranges to Inflict spells (not harm) - I think this would be a good change and allow for smaller shots to be done at range giving the Defiler some versatility on the battle field instead of having to run up to melee and get immediately KD'ed (Clerics don't get discipline so any viable meta requires a 3 dip in specialist or monk)
5: Make the spontaneous spells it gets refundable. There is no reason, other than code (and if this is the case, I concede to that) that these should not refund.
6: Perhaps give defilers a heal debuff on their spells cutting healing received by some percentage. I will let the devs figure out the number on this one as I have no basis.
Again, this is just a feedback from what I have been experiencing. I hope it is taken with a grain of salt from one player to the rest of the community.
