The enigma about Engima, a teleport discussion

[Friiser]

[Warning: Giant wall of text incoming]

TL;DR - discussing ideas on teleport oskill being otherwise available, i.e. not only Enigma



I have noticed that the Enigma runeword in D2 is a polarizing subject. I think most people like it, some people love it, and others wish it never would have been created.

Most here probably already know why, but to summarize its the +1 to Teleport and the rest of the over-powered nature of the stats that come with the armor. For this post I want to explore ideas that, if implemented, could diffuse some of the angst and perhaps make the game better. Perhaps it is wishful thinking, I'll concede that, but then again this is just a discussion.

From a single player perspective, it take a lot of work to grind for the runes to make it. I believe that a significant portion of the players create at least one sorceress to be efficient in farming end game areas...I certainly did (blizzsorc for p8 AT runs anyone?). When I made Enigma in SP it was a grand achievement for me, and one that I don't think I would attempt via online play as the differences in farming on battle.net versus SP farming are significant.

The economies / marketplace of the two versions will always be different I feel, and this thread isn't necessarily trying to make changes there, but I admit that any changes proposed here may have large impacts on those and should be considered.

I've heard some players suggest removing the oskill from the runeword altogether. I think this could be a solution if the oskill was added somewhere else (other than a staff on switch, or a circlet or amulet). The ability to teleport is, in my opinion, a valuable quality of life improvement for end game activities and I personally would like to teleport with non-sorc characters without the gold for charges mechanic.

A suggestion I've heard is adding the oskill to Tyreal's Might. Although I'm not opposed to this solution, that armor is so rare I don't think that is viable to be the only solution. I am in the camp of making the oskill available to all classes (as it is today with Enigma), but not until later in the game and other options to have it before one can craft the runeword.

Proposals on where to add the +1 to Teleport oskill:

(1) Add it to an existing unique charm. My idea here was to add it to Gheed's. Everyone generally goes for one and it has a character level of 62, so you're late NM or early Hell difficulty. Alternately, a +1 to Teleport unique grand charm that can only be found in Terror Zones in Hell, so to get one you'd have to beat Baal in Hell before you could equip it.

(2) NEW Crafted Large Charms. Small and grand charms are what most players use, let's give large charms some love. Something like an Ist Rune, Large Charm, Perfect Skull & a magic jewel in the Horadric Cube transmutes to a new crafted large charm that has +1 to Teleport.

(3) Add it to several highly used uniques, i.e. ones that most everyone goes for in their end game gear. Something like Titan's Revenge, Herald of Zakarum, Homunculus, Arreat's Face, Jalal's Mane, etc.

Thoughts, comments, criticisms and your ideas are welcomed Thanks for reading!

 

[Miron]

Nice Idea.

The problem with the above solutions, as I see it, is the end result will be the same. You freeing armor slot and moving the oskill to another constant item. The real problem here is that the "end-game" equipment for most common chars is the same more or less.
So if we don't want to remove the oskill but create diversity my suggestion is to move the oskill to rare/crafted amulet/ring and make it random to force players to make a choice between items.

EDIT: The same is true for other useful uniques and rune words either they need to be removed/nerfed (not going to happen) or greatly upgrade rares and crafts to create diversity (still not going to happen but here there is a tiny chance).

 

[Friiser]

Crafted caster amulets have a chance to have teleport charges, but getting that +2 to skills and +20 FCR is the current best in slot for many builds, adding +1 to Teleport to that pool would be crazy. Imagine CoH having +1 to Teleport on it as well, that would definitely change the choices people make.

 

[Miron]

Sorry for the double post, wanted to share another funny idea:

Add a new cube recipe based on less used runes (io - lem) that will add the oskill to an item but randomly remove 1 existing suffix/prefix

Add teleport to vipermagi but remove skills/FCR/resists

EDIT: "+1 Teleport" will automatically replace FCR (if exist) and randomly other suffix/prefix if there is no FCR in the list

 

[Gynli]

Just small bits of random thoughts that come to mind about enigma.

Im mostly in favor of opening up teleport oskill to all classes, but with a heavy nerf. Just enough that some people would decide against teleport in favor of other bonuses attained from the same slot.

1. Armor slot
There are few armors that can compete with enigma even without the teleport oskills. Perhaps buff other armors?
For exmaple, a fortitude armor that also has vigor aura with the ability to phase through monsters.

2. Switch slot
Another idea is to move the oskill from the armor slot to weapon/shield on switch. A new 2piece set of wand+shield that gives teleport as a set bonus?
This would also force players to decide between using BO and teleport.

3. General nerf to enigma
3.1. Fcr nerf. People already complain about 12fcr teleports on amazon, will they still use enigma if it offers a nerfed teleport that casts at 20fcr?

3.2. Distance nerf. Sorcs with genuine teleport can zoom around 1+ screens at once. What if enigma has teleport but it only goes half the distance?

Some random thoughts...

 

[SirName]

Adjacent to the main discussion: Without checking if something would become totally broken I’d like all skill charges on any item to be turned to oskill instead. The levels should not need adjusting as oskills are capped on original char. Demon limb on sorc would give only +3 enchant vs +23 for others.

Think of the quality of life improvements: No more summons go poof! The skills can now be bound to keyes! Rare gloves can have multishot. Niche but nice for rangers.

Ok teleport charges are found here and there and this would make everyone a teleporter but so what?

Perhaps teleport itself should then be nerfed. I would not set a cast delay as that would just be worsening quality of life. I’d just up the mana cost. Sorcs can then still be the teleport queens as skill point assignment lessens mana drain.

Enigma would still be worth it to get even though there would be other means to aquire teleport.

 

[ziambe]

While I have no problem with the way it currently is, I think an innovative way to try to solve this problem as well as improve crafting, build diversity and runeword balance would be to remove teleport from enigma and introduce a new crafting recipe which you use on a runeword/craft/rare that you've already made or found. A little bit on the lines of 'slamming' as its called in one of those mods/other arpgs (but hopefully with a less ridiculous name). The idea would be that you could put the item into the cube with maybe 2 pgems a jewel and a high rune, press transmute and the result is +1 to a random oskill from a predetermined list (which would include teleport) along with the stats/affixes the item already rolled.

This would allow you to get teleport (and some other oskills which are currently limited to one item) on any runeword/craft/rare if you tried long enough. It could give less used rune words more attention, maybe allow new builds and slightly improve crafting with the cube.

Edit: instead of slamming it could be called vexing, and you can guess which rune the recipe would use

 

[LouB]

I cast my vote for Vexing!! I really love @ziambe's idea. I could seem some really strange builds tried as a result.

Time for a little heresy. I consider Enigma over rated.

Time for some big heresy. Teleport should be removed from the game and that includes for Sorcs.

 

[SirName]

Time for some big heresy. Teleport should be removed from the game and that includes for Sorcs.

Can’t have a skill tree with 9 skills.

Ideas to change teleport instead of removal:

1) Make it a chaotic crowd control skill
* you need a living target, this target is then teleported to a random location
* you can target monsters, mercs, summons and self.

2) Keep it as a travel / get-out-of-trouble spell, but:
* range is made dependant on skill level similar to leap making it necessary to invest skillpoints
* manacost now increases with level significantly (hello firegolem) as you now travel further as skill increases.

 

[Kruemelmonschda]

Another idea on the top off my head. Remove the teleport from Enigma and implement a quest with the quest reward being an oskill of your choice or of a predetermined list which includes teleport.

 

[m4ke]

Why just not to do the job and run LK for the runes? If +1 to tele is put to any item, it will be same like Enigma. Too powerful. Why not just settle for a single one item which is made for years for that purpose?

m4ke

 

[DariusTriplet]

I'm in the tiny minority that doesn't like +oskills - they make characters all play too alike when everyone has access to Teleport, BO, and multiple auras. Combined with synergies making goofy +oskill build-arounds impossible (has anyone used Fireball on a necromancer?), I think they're a net negative on play.

If we're keeping them in, I'd rather they be on items at 1.10 rarity, when runes were far rarer than now. Enigma et al were trophy items that only the most dedicated players had, instead of being baseline gear that every character is expected to use. Alternatively, I'd like for there to be a real opportunity cost, like putting auras/oskills on otherwise junk gear. Pride is a good example, where you get Might but have to give your mercenary a useless weapon to access it; there's a real decision that goes into that!