Report 207

Report #207
Skillset: Geomancy Skill: Duststorm
 Org: Geomancers Status: Completed Jun 2009
Furies' Decision:
Duststorm to have a 50% chance of blinding each tic, regardless of sixthsense.
Problem: Duststorm currently blinds enemies, but is negated by both sixthsense
and protection scroll. Sixthsense was once a more fragile thing due to
encompassing both blindness and deafness, but now that it is just blindness it
is extremely easy to maintain. Indeed, runist and dreamweaver geomancers have no
remotely reasonable way of overcoming sixthsense, and since the other aspect of
duststorm is itself negated by weathersight (yes it will still block map, but of
course duststorm was originally balanced when there was no such thing as map so
that's just keeping things as is), this skill can quickly fall into the realm of
complete uselessness.
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #1: Make duststorm blind each tick, regardless of
 sixthsense. This will make the skill useful for
 geomancers of all tertiaries, while being something
 of a tradeoff for psions who benefit from the
 assumption that a person will have sixthsense up and
 can alteraura sixthsense to blind (though obviously
 they benefit in other ways). It would remain blocked
 by protection scroll.
Player Comments:
---[Llandros on 6/22 @ 14:55 writes]:
Sounds reasonable
---[Urazial on 6/22 @ 16:58 writes]:
Blindness stops bard instakills, and from my understanding other timed ones as
well. Given the eight second time for the bard's kill song to hit and the
relative ease in stopping it (blinding the bard, moving the bard or yourself out
of the room, earwort, etc.), this adjustment duststorm would make it nearly
useless, nearly like a passive blanknote for a bard. Of course, the degree of
impact for bards also depends on how often duststorm will tick, though even at
something like a 12 second tick it will still be a benefit given the effect on
timed instakills.
---[Ceren on 6/22 @ 23:47 writes]:
I was thinking 10 seconds like a standard affliction effect (that's what it
ticks at now, though I doubt anyone would actually know that given its current
state...). As far as passive stopping of instakills within demesne goes, that's
by no means something new as they're stopped by treelife in druid demesnes and
currents in aquamancer demesnes (and notice how these two are countered by
protection just like duststorm would be).
---[Ceren on 6/22 @ 23:51 writes]:
In case the point was lost, if an effect that passively stops deathsong makes
that skill 'useless', then they've been useless since the dawn of bards.
---[Krellan on 6/25 @ 23:26 writes]:
I agree with this change
---[Nejii on 6/26 @ 04:28 writes]:
That is a pretty dubious "tradeoff" for psions. Do geos need an affliction
upgrade?
---[Viynain on 6/26 @ 21:36 writes]:
I don't see where the detriment bit comes from this suggestion. Geomancer
demesnes are already extremely offensive, and making it even more so for the two
other specs with the 'tradeoff' that Psionicists have to adjust one attack is
just something I don't think is needed for the skillset.
---[Ceren on 6/27 @ 14:25 writes]:
"Do geos need an affliction upgrade?" Well, considering that the only true
afflictions a geomancer demesne does is 33% chance of breakleg every 10 seconds,
and a minor sip penalty aff every 40 seconds that wears off on its own shortly
and many consider not even worth the focus spirit to cure (and for group combat
is stopped by protection just like duststorm would be), or in other words an
average of 2 afflictions every 34.3 seconds, I wouldn't exactly say it's out of
line.
---[Nejii on 6/29 @ 03:19 writes]:
And prone (twice) and stun. You could also ask if Shadowdancers need an
affliction upgrade, note their deafness-stopped paralysis, slaugh, insomnia
removal and brief off-balance on an even slower tick and conclude that an
affliction upgrade wouldn't hurt, but I think a lot of people would disagree
with that process too, quite fairly.
---[Ceren on 6/29 @ 18:45 writes]:
I agree; wiccan fae don't afflict particularly fast (though still significantly
faster than a geomesne). However, the afflictions given given by crone/slaugh
are 1) masked and draw from a set with a wide range of possible cures and 2) for
the most part pretty debilitating and useful (compare anorexia, slickness,
rigormortis, or dysentery to broken leg or sickening).
---[Ceren on 6/29 @ 18:47 writes]:
And by the way, prone and stun, and for that matter most of the things you cited
from fae, don't require the person getting hit to use any sort of curing balance
to fix.