Combat Overhaul

I want to improve the combat system of Raining Chain.

Goal:

-DONE Revamp the monsters so their attacks are less random and more pattern-based. Knowing the enemies should provide an advantage (being able to dodge them or counter them). Right now, all you can do is kiting all the time.
-DONE Diversify the enemies. Your way to battle enemies should differ depending on the enemy. You should have to adapt yourself to different situations.
-Diversify player attacks so they actually feel different. Right now, most of the diversity comes from bullet movement and damage type/status effects. However, it still feels the same using them.
-Add more strategic elements / options for the player.
-Add more crowd control to make building defence actually useful.

Planned core updates:

-A new ability slot. This ability can NOT be aimed in a direction. It will act mostly as a Buff slot.
-DONE A new type of attack. A region of damage over time (region visible to the player).
-DONE A system that allows custom bullet movement behaviour.
-DONE A system that allows custom actor movement behaviour.
-DONE Display active buffs.
-(No longer needed) Moving mouse over ability shows area of effect.

Currently in-game:

-Burn: Damage-over-time based on remaining life
-Bleed: flat damage-over-time
-Chill: slow attak and move
-Knock: push away or toward
-Stun: set spd=0 and reset cooldown
-Drain: leech mana
-Leech life
-Pierce
-Trigger another attack on hit
-Trigger another attack on use
-Trigger another attack after a delay
-Trigger another attack every X frame
-Cost mana/hp to cast
-Cast curse on hit
-Heal on hit
-Go through wall

Bullet movement:

-Straight line
-Parabole
-Circular
-Wave
-Boomerang

New Ideas for:

-New ability effect

chance cast buff
each monster kill buff dmg,def,crit,leech for x sec
landing status effect on enemy trigger buff
+dmg if under status effect
chance to reset cooldown on heal/buff ability
deal % max health damage
gravity well effect: pulls enemies toward the center of the skill (Arcane Explosion, etc)
conversion x - y: element x is treated like element y now (ie. Cold to Fire in PoE)
damage/pulse aura: do x aoe damage every y seconds

-New player attributes/stats

flat life on kill
magic find
increase dmg/atk spd/half mana cost for certain attack
add dmg to secondary attack
enemies pierced bleed
status affected enemy takes more dmg
mana reduc
pet dmg buff
% chance to avoid spell / ranged / melee damage
+1 level/max level on x ability
contact damage from enemies poisons them
negate contact damage from enemies

-Ability ideas for new slot

Check http://forum.rainingchain.com/t50-ability-ideas

transform werewolf for X sec and dmg boost
heal self + nearby allies
cure status effect or self + allies
buff certain stat for X sec
negate next attack dmg
x2 more dmg for next attack
next attack will 100% burn/chill/...

-Ability ideas to replace existing attacks

Area of effect abilities:
burning ground: fire damage when standing on it, % chance to burn
icy patch: % chance to chill or slide physics (can engine do reliably?)
charged earth: % chance to stun, doubles lightning damage taken
necrotic soil: leeches health when standing in it to all nearby enemies
mana rift: max mana and mana regen cut in half when standing in it

mana font: increases max mana and mana regen when standing in it
life geyser: increases hp regen while standing in it
sacred earth: random buff every x seconds while standing in it
beacon of fire/ice/light/arc: inc dmg of x ele when standing in it, can’t use other elements

Ideas for Stats:
Damage Return (damage taken is applied to attacker)
Damage Reflect (damage return but damage taken that is returned is nullified)
Cast Rate (as discussed similar to Attack Speed but the suggestion is to have different ability categories affected by different rates)
Mixed Stats (basically combinations with lesser maxima allowing for more of the same stats despite the unique-stat-only ruling)

Nowadays one only has to look at other RPG games to get more ideas.