0 of 0
About this mod
Dullahan is a sizable overhaul to all the different vocations, trying to bring them more in line with each other and, more importantly, trying to make them more fun to play while reworking some of the cheesiest and most broken skills in the game. On top of that, it's completely modular, meaning you can choose which vocations you want changed.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
- Changelogs
Introduction
It shouldn't be surprising to hear that the vocations in DD2 are wildly unbalanced. They're all serviceable, but some of them have extremely broken or gimmicky skills that turn an already easy game into a snooze fest. On top of that, there's a lot of potential for expanding the core kit of some vocations, and reworking some skills into something that is more fun to use. Dullahan is an overhaul mod that balances the different vocations and taps into this potential, expanding the gameplay of DD2 to whole new levels.
Installation and modularity
Install as usual with Fluffy Mod Manager (note that it requires _ScriptCore). There are two main files, the lua script and the All-in-One pak file. You can just install both of these files if you want all the changes to all of the vocations. Then the optional files allow you to pick and choose which vocations you want. The lua script contains all the features marked as (Optional) below, so if you want any of those, you need to install the script.
Vocation changes
Changes that can be toggled in the script UI are marked as (Optional).
Fighter
Not much to say, except I hate Rearmament costing stamina, so...
Feedback welcome!
I'm open to tweaking these numbers, and maybe changing some other skills. Is the damage of Blades of the Pyre/Exploding Shot/Martyr's Bolt just right or does it need to be toned up or down? Is the stamina cost of Formless Feint reasonable? Feel free to leave some feedback in the comments!
Credit
This mod wouldn't exist without Balanced Combat 2, which served as an example of how to edit the right files and how to code some of the stuff I wanted, even though the current implementation of my mod is wildly different from the one they use. I also want to thank all the wonderful people at the modding discord who showed me how to do said implementation and helped me with a lot of technical issues.
It shouldn't be surprising to hear that the vocations in DD2 are wildly unbalanced. They're all serviceable, but some of them have extremely broken or gimmicky skills that turn an already easy game into a snooze fest. On top of that, there's a lot of potential for expanding the core kit of some vocations, and reworking some skills into something that is more fun to use. Dullahan is an overhaul mod that balances the different vocations and taps into this potential, expanding the gameplay of DD2 to whole new levels.
Installation and modularity
Install as usual with Fluffy Mod Manager (note that it requires _ScriptCore). There are two main files, the lua script and the All-in-One pak file. You can just install both of these files if you want all the changes to all of the vocations. Then the optional files allow you to pick and choose which vocations you want. The lua script contains all the features marked as (Optional) below, so if you want any of those, you need to install the script.
Vocation changes
Changes that can be toggled in the script UI are marked as (Optional).
Fighter
Spoiler:
Show
Fighter is a great baseline point for balance, having absolutely no overpowered skills. I just made a few simple tweaks to make the vocation feel smoother to play, and I also gave it access to two skills as core skills, to round up its kit.
- Tusk Toss: charge time reduced from 1s to 0.5s.
- True Deflect: increased window from 6 frames to 9 frames.
- Hindsight Sweep: increased perfect avoidance frames from 8 to 15.
- Gutting Skewer: increased speed of the stabs from 1.25 to 1.5.
- Steeled Foundation: fall damage reduction increased to 50%.
- (Optional) Tusk Toss can now be triggered by light attack -> delay -> light attack, much like Dire Onslaught in DD1. The specifics of how much delay to allow can be customized.
- (Optional) Gutting Skewer now replaces your jumping heavy and climbing heavy attacks (it blows my mind that the climbing heavy attack is straight up just Gutting Skewer but worse).
- (Optional) Using a heavy attack while blocking will trigger a shield pummel.
Spoiler:
Show
Archer is also mostly fine. Its maister skill, Heavenly Shot, was a bit underpowered and didn't feel worth using, so it got some significant buffs. Exploding Shot, on the other hand, had such crazy damage that I had to nerf it a bit. I suggest you install my own Griffin Weakspot for Archer fixed, which fixes a bug that makes arrows much less effective than they should be against griffins.
- Deathly Arrow: increased perfect timing window from 10 frames to 20 frames.
- Heavenly Shot: no longer has damage fall off with distance. No longer requires timing the release of the skill to increase the damage. Increased action rate from 5.5 (4.5 when improperly timed) to 7.15. If you want you can use my other mod Lenient Stagger and Exhaustion, which will make it less punishing to be left with no stamina.
- Exploding Shot: reduced the action rate of the explosion from 6.5 to 4 in the center of the explosion and from 5 to 3 in the surrounding area.
Spoiler:
Show
For some reason half of Thief's skills are absolutely busted. Ensnare can trivialize any regular-sized enemy, since it guarantees enough stagger to get a critical hit. Smoke Shroud does the same thing but in a whole area around you. Skullsplitter and Blades of the Pyre are basically the best consistent DPS in the game by a large margin. And let's not forget about Formless Feint literally being an invincibility button. Someone at Capcom really loves thief. I left Ensnare alone since at least it isn't broken against bosses, but everything else got nerfed, so you can now have fun with all of Thief's skills without trivializing the game. I also allowed Thief access to Concussive Leap without having it equipped as a skill.
- Scarlet Kisses: required inputs decreased from 5 times to 4 times in 1s.
- Skullsplitter: increased stamina consumption on the ground from 200 to 300, and on the air from 125 to 200. Reduced damage (save for the landing hit) by 20%. Spinning speed (both min and max) reduced by 40%. Yes, it was that broken.
- Formless Feint: stamina consumed per second increased from 15.75 to 50, and (optional) every time you dodge you lose 100 stamina. With a normal ~1000 stamina, this gives you 20 seconds of invulnerability, shortened by 2 seconds every time you dodge.
- Blades of the Pyre: reduced enemy damage action rate from 15 to 7 and self damage action rate from 1.5 to 0, meaning it will no longer directly hurt you. It still sets you on fire though. Increased stamina cost from 100 to 300.
- Smoke Shroud: increased stamina cost from 350 to 500.
- (Optional) A neutral jump after light attacking or dodging will now trigger Concussive Leap.
- (Optional) Concussive Leap can now be triggered by pressing the jump button while in the air (or any other button that you set in the config menu). There's also an option to allow all vocations to have access to this feature (Archer in particular feels amazing, you can use this to kick a Cyclops in the eye with good timing). Note that, unlike the two other mods on nexus that have this feature, my implementation allows you to do the neutral version of Concussive Leap as well.
Spoiler:
Show
Sorcerer definitely got the short end of the stick with the changes from DD1 to DD2, having only 4 skills (like the other vocations), but also having its core skills made significantly worse and less versatile (unlike the other vocations). Thankfully, we know have the mod Ordinary Offensive Magic (OOM, for short), which makes basic attacks with mage and sorcerer actually worth using, and even lets you customize several things about them. Because of this, I didn't touch the basic attacks, to retain compatibility with that mod. Since we also have Variable Magic, which lets us customize the damage and size of spells, I also saw no need to tweak spell damage here either.
What I did, however, is get rid of Galvanize (though this is optional and can be toggled on and off). I hate Galvanize. I think it's there to solve a problem that shouldn't exist, namely that Sorcerer is useless without stamina. OOM solves this problem, so there is no need for Galvanize. Even more so, you can go to OOM's settings and set ALLIVIATE_STAMINA_COST = -20.0 or something like that, and your charge attack will act like Galvanize, restoring your stamina, in a more interesting way that just standing there.
What I did, however, is get rid of Galvanize (though this is optional and can be toggled on and off). I hate Galvanize. I think it's there to solve a problem that shouldn't exist, namely that Sorcerer is useless without stamina. OOM solves this problem, so there is no need for Galvanize. Even more so, you can go to OOM's settings and set ALLIVIATE_STAMINA_COST = -20.0 or something like that, and your charge attack will act like Galvanize, restoring your stamina, in a more interesting way that just standing there.
- (Optional) Galvanize now acts as a fifth skill slot, where you can set any spell you want (you can choose which spell in the script generated UI). Note that you can't target enemies with this spell (this is a technical limitation I've yet to overcome), so this slot is best reserved for Salamander, Flagration or Thundermine.
- Moving or levitating no longer affects cast speed.
- Hagol and Salamander: reduced chant time from 5s to 4s.
- Augural flare: increased cast time from 3.5s to 7.5s. Use Variable Magic to tone it down if you feel it's too strong (I suggest a 0.5 damage modifier).
Spoiler:
Show
Warrior is as close as it gets to the perfect vocation IMHO, but I'm a sucker for big swords so maybe I'm biased. In any case, I just made a few interesting tweaks and sped up the heavy attacks so it's easier to get critical hits in when an enemy is staggered (you'll be amazed at how much difference it makes).
- Tidal Wrath: increased the speed of the start up (7x speed) so you get into parry stance faster (it's almost instant now). Increased parry angle from 120º to 270º. Duration decreased from 90 frames to 38 frames so you can move faster if you fail the parry.
- Arc of Might: now has a fixed stamina consumption of 800. Charge time reduced from 7.375s to 6.5s.
- (Optional) Your jumping light attack is now replaced by Diluvian Strike.
- (Optional) Heavy attacks are 30% faster. This includes heavy attacks performed while standing on top of a monster, and the corresponding critical hit animation if the monster is knocked down. It does not include, however, critical hit animations while you are on the ground, as I feel like those aren't that slow.
Spoiler:
Show
MS is a pretty well rounded vocation, only having one skill, Mirour Shelde, that desperately needed a nerf. The other one that got hit hard was Ravinour's Hond, because it lead to very uninteresting gameplay, especially when coupled with Wild Furie. Other than that, just some minor QoL adjustments.
- Max charge bolt time reduced from 10s to 6.5s.
- Winding cut: reduced required inputs from 4 in 0.45s to 4 in 1s.
- Quick fot and scattering bolt: increased the time window for getting them from 6 frames to 12 frames.
- Mirour Shelde: duration reduced by about 30% (now it's 4s for lvl 1 and 5s for lvl 2). You can no longer recover stamina while it's active. Now costs 40% of your max stamina.
- Skiedragoun's Feste: increased jump height from 3 to 5. Now you can consistently get on top of most monsters.
- Ravinour's Hond: reduced drain amount by 50%.
- Moment's charge: reduced health cost from 24% to 15%.
- (Optional) Winding Cut can now be triggered by light attack -> delay -> light attack. Because your fingers deserve a break. The specifics of how much delay to allow can be customized. Note that you still need to mash the button to do a continued spin, which is unfortunate. Working around this is hard and may be implemented in the future.
Spoiler:
Show
MA is one of the strongest vocations, but it's also pretty well balanced within itself, with basically all of its skills being really useful. The biggest pain point for me is Martyr's Bolt, which is a gimmick skill that one-shots everything at the cost of having to rest right afterwards. I reworked it into a usable skill that deals reasonable (I hope) damage.
- Sagittate Avalanche: reduced action rate from 0.3 to 0.2.
- Ricochet Hunter: reduced action rate from 0.7 to 0.5.
- Martyr's Bolt: now consumes regular hp instead of max hp (but you can't heal while charging it!). Cut damage roughly in half to compensate for it. It also drains all your stamina and leaves you on the ground like Celestial Paean. You can toggle this change off in the script UI, but then Martyr's Bolt won't work properly if you have the Magick Archer pak or the All-in-One version. So only do that if you're not using those.
- Recovery arrow: reduced self heal action rate from 0.225 to 0.1, to prevent cheesing with Martyr's Bolt (it's still a good strategy to use them together though).
- Lifetaking Arrow: increased stamina cost from 150 to 350. For some reason this skill is absurdly strong against enemies with lots of target points.
Spoiler:
Show
Unlike so many in the community, I don't hate Trickster, and I think it's fine as a vocation. I just made it so it's more reasonable to include it in your Warfarer builds, and reworked Aromatic Rally so there's at least some element of proper timing to its gameplay loop.
- Effigial Incense: out of territory damage reduced from 1000 to 0 (clone no longer dies quickly when you play Warfarer and change weapons).
- Aromatic Rally: no longer damages pawns. Duration reduced to 5s (lvl 1) and 10s (lvl 2). Stamina cost increased from 300 to 500.
Not much to say, except I hate Rearmament costing stamina, so...
- Rearmament no longer costs stamina.
Feedback welcome!
I'm open to tweaking these numbers, and maybe changing some other skills. Is the damage of Blades of the Pyre/Exploding Shot/Martyr's Bolt just right or does it need to be toned up or down? Is the stamina cost of Formless Feint reasonable? Feel free to leave some feedback in the comments!
Credit
This mod wouldn't exist without Balanced Combat 2, which served as an example of how to edit the right files and how to code some of the stuff I wanted, even though the current implementation of my mod is wildly different from the one they use. I also want to thank all the wonderful people at the modding discord who showed me how to do said implementation and helped me with a lot of technical issues.