Hemomancer - Red Harvest

[Deswe]

Just two things that I have noticed after the reset earlier with the Red Harvest changes:

1. Going from 1% to 3% Base per RH cast feels too big (finisher mechanic is nice tho), coupled with the reduced cost for low Spell
Levels it feels like FP management on Hemo is now non existent in the early Levels (currently at Level 9 and am always 60%+). Feels like
either change would be fine for the early Levels but both feels too much. Personally feel like the 1% Base is fine for RH with the
reduced FP costs (which are big, considering that one can empower/maximize them).

2. Likely unintended, but one can RH their own Summons from the Planar Binding line. Maybe make it not give any FP when used that way ? With the latest changes LPB costs 2.1% to cast and a single RH on the Summon already nets you 3% for a 0.9% net profit. Since the Summon can take a few RH before it dies FP management disappears entirely as you can autocharge yourself ad infinum.

Hope this is some useful feedback, just two glaring things that felt out of place.

[Scylon]

Play testing it at low levels yesterday, I found even using it on CD, I was burning focus like crazy. maybe it is mitigated at higher levels, but 3-5 It was BS hard keeping focus.

[DeepWebAssassin]

I really like the finisher mechanic on Harvest. I feel like it encourages the playstyle the class was shooting for in a really good way. The aesthetic theme and mechanical aspect of scoring the kill with RH is a lot of fun to play with.

As for its overall balance of Harvest -- it's hard to say. In low level areas it's easier to ensure that you're hitting a killing blow but as you start getting into beefier enemies you definitely start having to sling a lot of spells to progress. I am hitting the 18-ish range and am starting to notice that if I don't have blood stacks built up, a lot of Near Death enemies can survive Harvest's low stackless damage. I don't really think it's a problem -- later game feels like it should revolve around throwing bigger spells to spike your blood stacks and burn focus, but also get quicker, more potent recharges.

As far as overall focus burn, if you're in a party it's pretty easy to manage especially at low levels. But if you're solo and having to throw darkness a lot it can drain your focus fast. Or you are limited in selection (with most of your kit being non-party friendly or call lightning which deletes fixtures and loot) you may end up throwing the same spell back to back and eating the penalty. If you add in having to use a spell mantle or haste, or god forbid a true seeing, you eat through focus really fast.

For me that justifies the bigger return on Harvest, because it makes me feel more comfortable playing aggressively and not worrying so much about when I have to back off and rest up. But it's still possible to run out of juice if you're not scoring kills, making ineffective use of your spells, or failing to rotate out what you cast.

[AstralUniverse]

I think the idea in theory is that if you use RH on yourself or your summon, you're not doing damage to enemies with it and while your focus remains high it probably (again, in theory) lowers your clear speed and general damage output significantly as opposed to if you only focused on dealing as much damage as possible without looking at your Focus pool. That's how I think it should work anyway, if it isnt the intention already.

[Amnesy]

Even if I am not responding directly I am taking notes,

RH base % gain on focus will one day land in a good spot, especially the more feedback there is, but before I will adjust it I will wait to see opinions from several level ranges.

Draining own summon, if it becomes a real problem it can be modified, but RH can be self-cast for far better focus gain, the price is healing.

When it comes to the idea behind RH,
It is meant to give the player a choice, and it goes heavier on the RP side than the mechanical.
- In a sense we could see H who only RH self (imagine a Loviatarian at it),
- Another makes it part of their binding,
- And another RH only the enemies, aiming to end them with the ability.
They all can have very different RP flavors, backstories, etc.

TL;DR: We can always tweak numbers ; )

[Luingar]

Red harvest is in a weird place. It doesn't do enough damage to reliably finish any particularly tough high level foes, restores a fair amount of focus, and yes it's so spammable that hemomancers can black high level spells freely without reprecussion (At least at lvl 15 lol)
My suggestion to improve the execute ability? Make it do damage based on missing health. Or, maybe at ten stacks, enemies that end up near dead make a save vs death, with a +2 or +4 for each category of health they have (Nearly dead, severly injured, ect)

The bigger issue in my eyes is how red harvest makes a hemomancer able to spam spells like an elementalist in the middle of elemental overcharge, but constantly (so long as they harvest themselves or the enemies consistently)
My suggestion to tweak it?
Give it charges. Most every other ability like this is on a significant cooldown with charges, lets steal that mechanic.
Elementalist has a 10 minute cooldown, that works in my eyes, but it needs more charges. Maybe 3? Or maybe charisma mod?
Then, you can set it so if red harvest kills someone, it doesn't take a charge, thus doubling down on the execution emphasis.

These changes will make it so a hemomancer that performs flawlessly, red harvesting every enemy as soon as they're nearly dead, will be able to perform roughly as they do now (Maybe a little better, since I'm imagining the 18 second cooldown would be removed), but the elementalist will have a stronger hold of the "hard heavy burst" niche, while hemomancer does better in level appropriate sustained engagements.