Game Mechanics Meliorating Debuffs + Debuff Interactions

Bry

Steampunker
Well, I sure didn't expect to be back with a suggestion again. This particular topic's been left untouched for a bit too long, though, I think.

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Debuffs.
I'm sure everyone's noticed it at this point: a LOT of debuffs just kinda really suck. This . I've sure noticed it; kinda hard NOT to, with people mentioning the fact whenever they're brought up, not to mention the suggestions ALREADY made over them.
...Only after seeing several people mention it, though, did I actually realize how bad they were. Every message I saw afterwards just bolstered my confidence in the fact. A lot of their descriptions also kinda suck,.
So here I am, attempting to remedy this problem (yeah, that's what "meliorate" means, for the people who aren't dictionaries).

Debuff Icons!
As you were looking at the table, I'm sure you noticed the new debuff icons I made.
I'm happy to say that every debuff is ALSO getting a makeover! While not all of them are getting completely new icons, they all WILL be adorned with new frames!
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I thought about having the frame match the new Map borders, but I think I'm gonna leave that up to Redigit. Anyways...
I'll be listing all of the debuffs and their new icons in the order they appear in the Debuffs page on the wiki, left to right, so if you're familiar with that list, you'll know what to expect here.​
Bleeding​
Poison​
On Fire!​
Venom​
Darkness​
Blackout​
Silenced​
Cursed​
Confused​
Slow​
Oozed​
Weak​
Broken Armor​
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Withered Armor​
Withered Weapon​
Horrified​
The Tongue​
Cursed Inferno​
Ichor​
Chilled​
Frozen​
Wet​
Webbed​
Stoned​
Distorted​
Obstructed​
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Electrified​
Feral Bite​
Moon Bite​
Mana Sickness​
Potion Sickness​
Chaos State​
Suffocation​
Burning​
Tipsy​
Stinky​
Water Candle​
Mighty Wind​
Creative Shock​
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Frostburn​
Midas​
Oiled​
Stunned​
Slimed​
Shadowflame​
Betsy's Curse​
Penetrated​
Daybroken​
Celled​
Dryad's Bane​
Dazed​
Sugar Rush​
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On Fire!
-4 HP per second.
Halts natural health regeneration.
Can be put out with water.​
Slowly losing life
15% weapon damage/sec per stack; can be stacked up to 5 times. Deals 3x damage against slimes, cold enemies and plant life.
-----◘3.75% damage per tick, 4 ticks/sec. Minimum of 1 damage per tick.
-----◘Max damage: 75% weapon damage/sec.
-----◘Max damage against enemies weak to fire: 225% weapon damage/sec.

Halves total health regeneration.

• Water puts out the flames.

[!] Despite the usefulness of every other non-Daybroken fire debuff, On Fire is the fastest at killing enemies that are weak to fire.​
Burning alive!
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Frostburn
-8 health per second.
No natural health regeneration.​
It's either really hot, or really cold, but it REALLY hurts
20% weapon damage/sec per stack; can be stacked up to 3 times. Deals 2x damage against slimes and plant life, and 3x damage to hot enemies.
-----◘10% damage per tick, 2 ticks/sec. Minimum of 1 damage per tick.
-----◘Max damage: 60% weapon damage/sec.
-----◘Max damage against enemies weak to fire: 120% weapon damage/sec.
-----◘Max damage against enemies weak to cold: 180% weapon damage/sec.

• Touching water both helps AND worsens the chill, reducing damage/sec to 15% per stack while lowering movement, melee and projectile speed by 10% per stack.

• Reduces total health regeneration by 75%.

• In Master Mode, Snow biome water inflicts a stack of Frostburn every 2 seconds instead of Chilled. Each tick deals 1 damage, but damage can stack up to 6 DPS.
It's either really hot or really cold, but either way, it REALLY HURTS!

I really love this more informal tooltip, so I'm following its lead for the rest of the debuffs.​
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Cursed Inferno
-6 HP per second.
Halts natural health regeneration.​
Losing life
11% weapon damage/sec per stack; can be stacked up to 6 times. Deals 2.5x damage against slimes, cold enemies and plant life.
-----◘4% damage per tick, 3 ticks/sec. Minimum of 2 damage per tick.
-----◘Max damage: 66% weapon damage/sec.
-----◘Max damage against enemies weak to fire: 165% weapon damage/sec.

• Reduces Damage and Critical Strike Chance by 5% per stack.

Halves total health regeneration.

• Can't be put out with water.
-----◘Equipping the Countercurse Mantra will convert all Cursed Inferno inflictions into On Fire.​
Water won't save you from these flames.
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Shadowflame
-15 health per second.
No natural health regeneration.​
Losing life
30% weapon damage/sec per stack; can be stacked up to 4 times. Deals 1.33x damage against slimes, cold enemies and plant life, and 2.5x damage against Hallow enemies.
-----◘10% damage per tick, 3 ticks/sec. Minimum of 5 damage per tick.
-----◘Max damage: 120% weapon damage/sec.
-----◘Max damage against enemies weak to fire: 160% weapon damage/sec.
-----◘Max damage against Hallow enemies: 300% weapon damage/sec.

[PLAYER-ONLY] Applies an Obstructed-like effect to the screen of the target, but weaker. The edges of the screen are a deep, dark purple that slowly fades into a brighter, more transparent lavender the closer the effect gets to the player. Visibility worsens with each additional stack.
-----◘If at all possible, this should be able to follow the player no matter where they are on the screen without the effect cutting off; for example, at the world's ends, or when using Binoculars or a Scope attachment.

[ENEMY-ONLY] Delays attempts to change direction by 0.1 seconds and makes fired projectiles deviate by 7.5-15 degrees for every stack. I'm trying to simulate the blinding effect with enemies.

• Reduces total health regeneration by 33%.

• Water pauses the debuff's effects and reduces the timer's speed to 33%; drying out allows the debuff to return, assuming it hasn't expired.​
The flames burn so hot, yet so dark...
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Burning
-50 health per second.
Deals some nasty movement speed reduction.​
Losing life and slow movement
50 damage/sec. Deals 3x damage against slimes, cold enemies and plant life.
-----◘5 damage per tick, 10 ticks/sec.

• Instantly removes Wet, cold debuffs and Bleeding, and pauses the timers of all fire debuffs except Frostburn, which instead gets removed.

[PLAYERS ONLY] Halves movement speed. Also reduces jump height by 35% in Expert Mode, or by 70% in Master Mode.​
You're melting onto the surface!
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Daybroken
-100 health per second per Daybreak stuck in the enemy, up to -800 DPS.​
Incenerated by solar rays
100% weapon damage/sec per stack; can be stacked up to 8 times with the Daybreak. Deals 2x damage against slimes, cold enemies and plant life. The day you get the Daybreak will be a very bad day for the Frost Queen.
-----◘25% damage per tick, 4 ticks/sec. Minimum of 25 damage per tick.​
Being incinerated by solar rays!
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Slimed
You gain a blue tint and drip slime.
Purely visual.​
You are slimy and sticky
haha lol who needs to have a silly time when you can burn things
• Now inflicted by most slimes in Expert Mode, especially blue ones. The chances and duration vary WILDLY depending on the slime.

• You gain a blue tint and drip slime.

• Fire debuffs that are inflicted while Slimed will deal 2x total damage; their damage will return to normal once Slimed wears off.
-----◘Each unique fire debuff inflicted cuts Slimed's remaining time by 10%.
-----◘Each additional stack of a pre-existing fire debuff cuts the time by an extra 4%.

• Falling in any liquid removes Slimed, though lava will deal 2x contact damage.

• The debuff's icon changes when on fire.​
You're slimy and stick- wait, isn't this stuff flammable?
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Oiled
On Fire!, Frostburn, Cursed Inferno and Shadowflame each deal 2 extra damage per tick when inflicted at the same time. All debuffs tick as one.​
Taking more damage from being on fire
• You gain a dull yellow tint and slowly drip oil.

• Fire debuffs that are inflicted while Oiled will deal 3x total damage; their damage will return to normal once Oiled wears off.
-----◘Each unique fire debuff inflicted cuts Oiled's remaining time by 15%.
-----◘Each additional stack of a pre-existing fire debuff cuts the time by an extra 6%.

• Falling in any liquid removes Oiled, though lava will deal 3x contact damage.

• The debuff's icon changes when on fire.​
Someone's looking mighty flammable.
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Wet
You drip water.
Purely visual.​
You are dripping water
• Now inflicted while not in front of a wall or for 6 seconds after exiting water.

• You drip water.

• Puts out On Fire and sends Shadowflame into hiding. Washes off Slimed, Oiled, Oozed, and Ichor, though these four debuffs can also overwrite Wet.

• Worsens the effects of cold and electricity.

• Mighty Wind will dry you off, while Burning will instantly evaporate the water.​
You're dripping wet!
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Chilled
Halves movement speed.​
Your movement speed has been reduced
• You gain an icy blue tint and emit ice particles.

Halves movement speed.

• Target takes 1.33x damage from cold sources and has a 20%/33% increased chance of being Frozen. To compensate, all enemies that can inflict Frozen will have a smaller chance of doing so.

• Standing within 2 blocks of any Campfire will warm you up. Fire attacks and debuffs will also work, though those hurt.
-----◘Standing near a Frozen Campfire actually inflicts Frostburn, though, so maybe don't do that. While we're at it, I should tell you that standing near a Frozen Campfire while Wet will Chill, and subsequently Frostburn, you.

• Attacks that can inflict Chilled will always do so while Wet.​
Having trouble moving; weakened to the cold.
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Frozen
Prevents you from moving or using items, though gravity will still pull ya.
Envelops you in a big chunk of ice. Visuals are important, yo.​
You can't move!
• You become frozen in ice and slowly emit ice particles.

• You can't move or use items, but you'll still fall.
-----◘Taking at least 50 fall damage immediately shatters the ice, sending 4-6 chunks of it flying for 30 damage each. The ice chunks could also be cosmetic, I guess, but where's the fun in that?

• Standing within 2 blocks of any Campfire while on the ground will thaw you out. Fire attacks and debuffs will also do the job, albeit more painfully.

• Grants 15% damage resistance, though you still take 1.33x damage from cold sources. It makes being subject to taking a free hit more tolerable, yes, but also enemies gotta hit you through a thick layer of ice, so why WOULDN'T attacks do less damage?

• Frozen lasts 50% longer while Wet.​
C-C-Can't m-m-m-move!
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Poisoned
-2 HP per second.
Halts natural health regeneration.​
Slowly losing life
• Gain a sickly green tint.

• Target loses 2% of its remaining HP every second. The poison can’t kill.
-----◘-1% HP per tick, 2 ticks/sec. Minimum of 1 damage per tick.
-----◘Damage actually starts at -0.1% HP/sec; it ramps up to -1%/sec over the first second of infliction.

Completely halts health regeneration.

• Attacks that can inflict Venom have a 20% increased chance of doing so while Poisoned.

[!] It doesn't get inflicted for very long, so make sure you keep reapplying it to keep your damage up!​
Absorbing toxins.
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Venom
-6 HP per second.
Halts natural health regeneration.​
Losing life
• Gain a sickly purple tint.

• Target loses 0.9% of its maximum HP every second.
-----◘-0.15% HP per tick, 6 ticks/sec. Minimum of 2 damage per tick.
-----◘Damage actually starts at -0.1% HP/sec; it ramps up to -1%/sec over the first second of infliction.

Completely halts health regeneration.

• Ramps up to full damage twice as fast and deals 1% HP of damage/sec while Poisoned is inflicted.

[!] It lasts for even less time than Poisoned does; keep attacking!​
Injected with toxins.
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Electrified
-4 HP per second; moving bumps the damage up to -16 HP per second
Halts natural health regeneration.​
Cannot move
25% weapon damage/sec.
-----◘6.125% damage per tick, 4 ticks/second. Minimum of 2 damage per tick. Tick rate increases the faster the target moves, up to 3x tick speed. Damage gains an additional 2x tick speed if the target is in water or inflicted with Wet.

Inflicts On Fire on Slimed or Oiled targets if the debuff isn't already inflicted. On Fire cannot be stacked this way.

• Reduces total health regeneration by 80%.​
Don't move, or you'll build up static electricity!
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Penetrated
-3 health per second per Javelin stuck in the enemy, up to -18 DPS.​
Losing life
20% weapon damage/sec and -1.5 defense per stack; can be stacked up to 6 times. Deals 1.25x more total damage for each stack applied after the target's defense has reached 0, including the very stack that got it there.
-----◘1 tick/sec. Minimum of 6 damage per tick.​
Your armor is being breached!
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Dryad's Bane
-2 health per second; first-time boss defeats increases damage, up to 10 DPS with every boss defeated (or 16, in Expert Mode).​
'The power of nature compels you'
7 damage/sec. Deals 2x damage when playing in Expert Mode, or 3x in Master Mode.
Defeating Main and Extra Bosses increases the debuff's damage. Mini or Event Bosses do not contribute to the bonus.
King Slime​
8 DPS (+1)​
Eye of Cthulhu​
10 DPS (+2)​
Eater of Worlds/Brain of Cthulhu​
13 DPS (+3)​
Queen Bee​
15 DPS (+2)​
Skeletron​
19 DPS (+4)​
Wall of Flesh​
30 DPS (+11)​
1st Mech​
35 DPS (+5)​
2nd Mech​
40 DPS (+5)​
Final Mech​
49 DPS (+9)​
Plantera​
58 DPS (+9)​
Golem​
72 DPS (+14)​
Duke Fishron​
88 DPS (+16)​
Lunatic Cultist​
100 DPS (+12)​
The power of Nature compels you!
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C
elled
-10 health per second per mini-cell stuck in the enemy; damage caps at 100 DPS.​
Being eaten by cells
-2.5% HP/sec per stack; can be stacked up to 20 times with the Stardust Staff's minions' projectiles. Deals 2x damage to bleeding enemies.
-----◘1 tick/sec. Minimum of 100 damage per tick, with a maximum of 1000 damage.​
Your cells are trying to fight alien cells. It doesn't look like your cells are winning.
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Bleeding
Halts natural health regeneration.

It's literally a Damage-over-Time debuff, but without the Damage-over-Time. Wwwhy?????​
Cannot regenerate life
Completely halts natural health regeneration.

• All other healing is reduced by 30%; getting hit furthers the reduction to 80%. The Nurse overrides this and removes the debuff.
-----◘The reduction will scale back to 30% in a similar fashion to how Mana regenerates from 0, though it should only take 7 seconds for the additional reduction to revert.

• Doubles the effects of Weak and Celled, but has a surprisingly beneficial reaction with Ichor.

• Halves the duration of Poisoned and Venom every second it's inflicted.

• Burning will cauterize the wound and stop the bleeding.​
You're losing blood too quickly for your body to heal!
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Ichor​
Reduces defense by 20.
Tints you a gross yellow.​
Reduced defense
• Same effects as before.

• Removes Wet when inflicted.

• If both Ichor and Bleeding are inflicted on you, 50% of all healing received while at full HP, including instant health and regeneration, will be converted into temporary Godly Hearts, granting you health over the maximum for a short time. Once either Ichor or Bleeding wears off, Godly Hearts will drain at a rate of -2% HP/s.
-----◘Godly Hearts go PAST your Max HP rather than increasing it; Lifeforce Potions will still only provide +100 Max HP if you have 500 Max HP with some Godly Hearts.

[!] Remember that Bleeding has healing reduction. When at 30% reduction, you gain 35% of what you would normally heal for as Godly Hearts.​
Reduced defense.



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Interactions between Debuffs!
Yeah, this always bugged me when it came to stuff like Wet and On Fire!, but besides that, I think having certain debuffs interact would help to make them more interesting. It'd certainly make things more strategic, when it comes to you inflicting them.
I'm gonna knock out the obvious stuff like Wet with On Fire!, but I'm also gonna throw in some different stuff like Ichor with Bleeding, so expect the unexpected.
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Debuff​
Interaction​
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Feral Bite​
If Feral Bite is inflicted while active, all possible debuffs it can inflict will be active at once until it wears off.​
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Moon Bite​
Moon Leech Clots have doubled health and heal twice as much to the Moon Lord.​

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Debuff​
Interaction​
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Mighty Wind​
Mighty Wind dries you off.​

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Debuff​
Interaction​
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Cursed Inferno​
Cursed Inferno's timer will pause until Cursed wears off.​
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Silenced​
Mana regeneration is paused if both are inflicted at the same time.​
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Betsy's Curse​
Armor bonuses are negated if both are inflicted at the same time.​
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Well, that's that, then.
This is probably the first sane suggestion I've made, both in idea and scope. Gotta say, it's pretty relaxing (though the forum update sure made Tables the definition of pain and suffering).
Thanks for readin' through this; if you think something needs fixin', tell me!​
 
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[/I]|-108 health per second. The screen is covered by a gradient that's a solid black at the edges and transitions to a much more transparent purple as it moves to the center of the screen, which hinders visiblity. 150% damage against slimy and cold enemies, and 250% damage against Hallow enemies.|The flames burn so hot, yet so dark...
I would like to remind you that 108 is a big number. A shadowflame doll could send a player from 600hp to 0.
 
Aaaaaalright, I reached the main goal I had for my suggestion for once, so I'm happy. And proud.
Now that I'm done, I kinda wanna renovate the debuff icons that need it. I've done a few already, and it's fairly easy.
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While these are good on paper for enemies, these are waaaay too powerful for use against the player. You must consider that these enemies have much larger health pools than us, and we only can have upwards of 400 or 500, given progression. Let us take into consideration your Cursed Flames buff. It does 24 damage per second, while only getting substantially stronger until it ends. Let us say that we get hit by a Clinger and procure the debuff on Expert. We would not only take the base hit of damage, but we would get this debuff for 14 seconds! If we do the math here, that means it would do 421 damage upon conclusion of the debuff. This isn't including the already present 68 damage attack(on expert) from the flames itself. So, in all, you would take 489 damage from a single hit! Wouldn't you think that is a bit too punishing? Even on normal mode it can seem a bit harsh. About 200 damage plus 44 damage from a single hit is way too punishing on the player, especially for a single hit and a debuff they cannot control if they do manage to get struck by the attack.

This is the exact problem with debuffs in this game. They are way too powerful for the player if given too much base damage and are not substantial against the enemy if given balanced stats for the player. As such, would there be a compromise for this issue? I cannot think of any at the top of my head, aside from making the debuffs percentage based rather than base damage. But, that also brings up the problem of higher health enemies compared to weaker ones. It would make the enemies that are naturally tougher more susceptible to such debuffs while making it a waste of time for enemies that are weaker. Perhaps they could only be percentage based for the explicitly fragile player, so that is consistent for players as it is to enemies with base damage? I do respect your efforts to bring light unto these usually forgotten conditions, but the current use they have will drastically change balance in the favor of the enemies using these debuffs. I'm not trying to say that we should not be concerned about effects of debuffs on us, but they shouldn't be doing well over 300 damage, should they?
 
While these are good on paper for enemies, these are waaaay too powerful for use against the player. You must consider that these enemies have much larger health pools than us, and we only can have upwards of 400 or 500, given progression. Let us take into consideration your Cursed Flames buff. It does 24 damage per second, while only getting substantially stronger until it ends. Let us say that we get hit by a Clinger and procure the debuff on Expert. We would not only take the base hit of damage, but we would get this debuff for 14 seconds! If we do the math here, that means it would do 421 damage upon conclusion of the debuff. This isn't including the already present 68 damage attack(on expert) from the flames itself. So, in all, you would take 489 damage from a single hit! Wouldn't you think that is a bit too punishing? Even on normal mode it can seem a bit harsh. About 200 damage plus 44 damage from a single hit is way too punishing on the player, especially for a single hit and a debuff they cannot control if they do manage to get struck by the attack.

This is the exact problem with debuffs in this game. They are way too powerful for the player if given too much base damage and are not substantial against the enemy if given balanced stats for the player. As such, would there be a compromise for this issue? I cannot think of any at the top of my head, aside from making the debuffs percentage based rather than base damage. But, that also brings up the problem of higher health enemies compared to weaker ones. It would make the enemies that are naturally tougher more susceptible to such debuffs while making it a waste of time for enemies that are weaker. Perhaps they could only be percentage based for the explicitly fragile player, so that is consistent for players as it is to enemies with base damage? I do respect your efforts to bring light unto these usually forgotten conditions, but the current use they have will drastically change balance in the favor of the enemies using these debuffs. I'm not trying to say that we should not be concerned about effects of debuffs on us, but they shouldn't be doing well over 300 damage, should they?
If you want my honest opinion, I think that Relogic should just make the debuffs function differently depending on whether they're inflicted on an enemy or a player. They can't be balanced around the enemies and players AND have consistent effects; they'll either be too weak for our use, or incredibly power for our demise. Of course, what I could just do is what I did for Poisoned and Venom, and have every debuff deal capped percentage damage, but then, yeah, we'd have the problem of debuffs being literally useless against weaker enemies.
I, of course, didn't account for this in the suggestion, so perhaps I should do that.
 
IF you want to balance it out make all damage proportional to HP using percents of max HP for ex. (with limits obviously)…
 
IF you want to balance it out make all damage proportional to HP using percents of max HP for ex. (with limits obviously)…
Of course, what I could just do is what I did for Poisoned and Venom, and have every debuff deal capped percentage damage, but then, yeah, we'd have the problem of debuffs being literally useless against weaker enemies.
 
That why I said thing about limits :D lower cap too!
Well I've confused myself. What do you mean by "limits"?
In my opinion, this isn’t a problem. Weaker enemies can be easily slain with a standard weapon, so in this new version, debuffs would be useful just for taking down high-profile targets like bosses and beefy regular enemies.
That's a pretty good point. Maybe I'll make them percentage-based, then.
...Except now I'm kinda stuck between that and having different versions for players and enemies. As dumb as it is, I'm genuinely not sure what to go with.
 
Imagine a debuff that removes 1% of the enemy max life every second. On a mob with 40HP, the damage would ridiculously low. But if you somewhat manage to make the debuff deal at least 2HP second for example, it would still be efficient on weak enemies.
OH, I gotcha. I'm surprised I didn't think of that earlier. Thanks for clarifyin'!
 
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