Report 1776

Report #1776
Skillset: Aeromancy Skill: Miasma
 Org: Hallifax Status: Rejected Aug 2017
Furies' Decision:
To be handled in the mage rework. Stay tuned.
Problem: Miasma is Aeromancy's unique instakill, costing 5 power and the room to
have cloud terrain. It will instakill a target if they have less than 25% of
their max mana. If the target is above this threshold, the power is used up and
no other effect happens. Because of this incredibly low threshold, there is no
real way to get targets to this amount of mana outside of 1) groups, in which
case there are other mana instakills that only require a 50% threshold and no
terrain requirement, and against some targets 2) with the current version of
dreamweaving dreambeast, which is already being looked at in report 1702.
Another problem with a threshold that is so low is that even if someone has been
drained to 0% mana, it is still feasible that they would be able to cure past
25% just from a single round of sipping/sparkleberry/scroll.
[A: 2 R: 6] Solution #1: Increase the instakill threshold to 40% of max mana.
[A: 9 R: 1] Solution #2: Leave the instakill threshold at 25% of max mana, but
 also add a second possible threshold of 50% max mana
 AND either health OR ego being at 65% or less.
Player Comments:
---[Falaeron on 7/23 @ 22:12 sets as pending]
---[Falaeron on 7/23 @ 22:16 writes]:
In addition to the last point of the problem statement, someone at 13/13 mana
regeneration could actually go from 0 to 26% on a single regen tic too. Many
combinations of the healing methods would also be enough. A lot of this also
applies to Crow Swoop. I also think that there is an inherent problem with
having some mana kills at 25% and some at 50% because it breaks the balance in
groups. The ones with 25% should in theory drain more mana, which means they
would be able to help get the 50% mana kills far easier than is probably
intended for those who have a 50% mana kill set up.
---[Falaeron on 7/23 @ 22:20 writes]:
For the reasons above, I actually don't like solution 1 as much as solution 2. I
feel that solution 2 would work well with all mage tertiaries without making any
of them too strong (after Dreamweaving is nerfed). I.e. Runes would focus on the
25% mana kill, TK could potentially go 25% mana or the hybrid threshold, TP
could maybe go hybrid with Mindburst as a secondary threat and a nerfed
Dreamweaving would go hybrid.
---[Shedrin on 8/18 @ 00:45 writes]:
I like Solution 2 both for being a more unique kill method, which is superior
thematics and easier to balance. We may need to adjust the numbers after testing
but should be ok for starting.
---[Veyils on 8/20 @ 16:04 writes]:
50% mana and health would make more sense to me directly.
---[Ejderha on 8/21 @ 17:44 writes]:
Sol2 seems far more interesting and varied, to give different specs different
options. Prefer 2, but 1 at least makes the skill more usable.
---[Xenthos on 8/27 @ 22:34 writes]:
I feel that it needs to be pointed out that getting someone to <65% on any vital
is... pretty easy. The problem mentions groups, but there's basically going to
be no point in a group skirmish that this report doesn't essentially just make
the instakill a 50% mana requirement (others will be hitting health per their
normal routine). Would prefer solution 2 be a 50% mana / 50% ego threshold
(remove the health option entirely).
---[Veyils on 8/27 @ 22:58 writes]:
I'd figure a power cost increase as well if your buffing the ability to kill
with it?
---[Falaeron on 8/28 @ 00:59 writes]:
@Xenthos: I don't think it's as easy as you are suggesting. 65% health alone?
Sure, happens often enough on low health targets. 65% and 50% mana at the same
time? Doesn't happen often at all. It isn't that easy to pressure both mana and
health to any significant degree at the same time, so in groups you usually see
sides going for -either- mana or health, usually depending on whether they have
mana killers available. This is even more true in a 1v1 context for Aeromancers.
Additionally, making it 50% ego is a big problem because the only terts that can
make it happen, DW and TP, already have 50% ego thresholds so you're essentially
working much harder for a slightly cheaper power kill - why not just go for the
mindburst/eternalsleep with much less effort? TK and Runes will also continue to
be underwhelming.
---[Falaeron on 8/28 @ 01:02 writes]:
@Veyils: The problem is that even at 5 power this skill/the aeromancer mana
drain is very underpowered compared to the 8p 50% mana kills available to
various guardian/wiccan classes. A buff to an underpowered skill shouldn't
necessarily require a power increase. Sol 1 puts this at 40%, which is still
lower than the 50% mana kills, and additionally has a cloud terrain requirement,
which means it can't even be used some of the time (i.e. any fight on Ethereal,
or when another meld is being used). Sol 2 has the same cloud requirement, but
straight up adds an additional requirement in the form of more mana drained, or
a good amount of damage drained on top of a 50% mana threshold. If I was asking
for a pure 50% mana kill with no other requirement I'd all be for upping the
power to 8p as well.
---[Xenthos on 8/28 @ 02:19 writes]:
So: By your logic, Crow Swoop's 25% mana & tree terrain requirement is very
underpowered too, yes? The only difference is that there's not a power cost,
that I can see. I'm just hesitant about adding *even more* 50% manakills to the
game, and I really don't see a 50% manakill + 65% health as being anything more
than 50% mana in a group environment (the health really is a gimme).
---[Falaeron on 8/28 @ 07:58 writes]:
Read my first comment? I already said that a lot of the problems apply to Crow
Swoop, although I have seen more Swoops than Miasma, which is likely due to the
amount of combat on Faethorn where Miasma isn't possible. Often in team fights
when I see people going <50% mana their health is usually in a decent spot. If
there are enough people to get both vitals down it means they are so overwhelmed
that they could probably die to a variety of other things, including a
cheaper/faster set-up health kill. Additionally, the fact is that Miasma is a
manakill so I don't think it's fair to refuse to buff it just because you don't
want more 50% manakills. Unless we change Miasma to something completely
different, which would require many other changes to Aeromancy, it's what we
have to work with so it should be treated the same as any other manakill.