So, I need some questions answered on the infuriatingly undertested Werediggle. With the introduction of Egyptian Magic, and the obvious synergy with a Blood Magic Werediggle, I'm curious to try a build around this. Problem is, I'm not quite understanding (especially after all these patches) how things work. How exactly do stances apply to the Werediggle? Does Arch-Diggle Smash scale to Caddishness properly? (Trying Pirate along with all of this. As a side-question, is Pirate any good? :B And did they Broadside any better?) And why doesn't Diggle Plauge proc-on-hit?
Whatever is a buff, stays when you turn into a werediggle; all effects of the buff remain. Whatever is triggering automatically, stays when you turn into a werediggle; it will have the same chance to trigger. And yes, "Piracy" is good. And "Diggle Plague" is not guaranteed to proc on hit, IIRC.
Erm, no, it was always a "spell". It's just that "spell" is not equal to "activated ability" in this game, and means "any sort of effect that is being used by anything" instead. So yes, it is a spell. But this spell works exactly the way it worked in the past, really. It is just that the proc is random, and it always was random.
Ok, maybe I should have been more specific. I did not mean "spell" as in the term the db files use, I mean "spell" as in an activated ability with an MP cost (Albeit a cost of zero) and no recast timer. Takes up a space on my action bar and everything. On the one hand, you can now freely toss it at things as you please. On the downside, doing so is taking a turn you could have spent making it dead. I think I preferred it the way it was.
~sigh~ It's been like that for at least a few versions. Really. I just checked my old 1.0.9 copy and it's the same way here.
It's truly a cost-0-spell, but the problem is that the .xml just says it's a proc on hit and on being hit. So, basically, it has very few uses, since you can kill the things faster than debuffing them and them killing them.
Piracy's caddishness will not benefit the werediggle , nor will weapon skills. Stances (polearms / daggers) being status effects , will carry over and affect diggle melee and throwing. Since pirate has quite a lot of long cooldown abilities , they're best used before going into diggle form. Swashbuckling is especially useful , as it will grant you safety while you morph and then buy you some time to give enemies the diggle plague before you arch-diggle smash their head in. Logically , your werediggle should also not suffer from righteous damage vulnerability from blood magic - so it's a good idea to morph when fish paladins are around.
Werediggles benefit from the weapon skills like axes and maces, since they have procs, and the bonus damage remains (so maces are the best, since their skill enhances lot of pure damage).
Diggle Plague. It's a spell. It's cast on any target you care to cast it on. It debuffs them for -3, -5, -5, and -1 for 24 turns. Then, it gives them 2 procs: when they hit something, the thing they hit can contract Diggle Plague, and when they get hit, the thing hitting them can contract Diggle Plague. They're low percentage chances, but you don't want to go around arbitrarily Diggle Plagueing everything you come across unless you're willing to deal with the effects. It's supposed to have a DoT that does, on average, 1 per round, but it was inside the <buff> tags for the debuff, so it wasn't working, and I'm guessing that's why it was commented out. All told: it's shit. I mean, -5 HP and -6ish Dodge means a little on DL1, but with no scaling anything, it's not worth the turn it takes to cast. As a proc that happened while you were doing what Werediggles are supposed to do, yes, but as a spell...it's often worse than just throwing another of your 165 Softballs at it. (And why -? Because they have a cold?) Needless to say, this is going to be addressed in the proper release of ECSRII:Electric Bungalow.
It's a wanted effect? Since I cannot think of some monster (aside from charm monsters and the traitor diggles from fax) who are attacking another monster. So this mean that the werediggle is gonna be the most influenced by this spell, since it's infecting who is touching his host (werediggle enemies). I went in the spellDB many times trying to change the effect into a proc effect, but I'm not good enough to understand what you are supposed to change. I cannot find the mana cost, and I saw the triggering, so I though of some sort of bug. Maybe adding a stacking effect (the infection is growing badder and badder) could help with the balance, or there could be a mayor effect upon hitting, on higher levels. Also, it should regain its dot effect, maybe a little powered up (1 damage is crappy for first floor, and it's nothing past level 3). But as far as I can remember, spells cannot check if monsters have buffs, so it could not activate a badder effect upon already infected enemies. This, however, could help werediggle finding his way in this game (a really good debuffer, or something like that). There could be also very Sick Diggles to use this effect if it worked, just to not give everything cool to the player and to mantain the feeling werediggle is borrowing spells from enemies.
Actually, it's VERY possible, just play with the resistances like Nerve Staple does and make it a stackable effect. The - should make the DoT do more damage with each and each stack... assuming it doesn't straight up hit multiple times if stacked. If it does, it could get out of control FAST, since even just stacking 5 times would result in 50 a round (5 hits of 5+5 damage, or 5*10). Possibly two debuffs on the monster: One that deals toxic damage over time and does not stack, and the main diggle debuff including the - which does.
