Report 1618

Report #1618
Skillset: Bonecrusher Skill: SmashedSkull
 Org: Paladins Status: Rejected Feb 2017
Furies' Decision:
Reject - Solution 1 is not technically feasible at this time.
Problem: The primary kill-mode in Bonecrusher, BashBrain, has a blackout
requirement. Blackout is unreliable to track in offense given that it can be
instantly cured with allheale, has an immunity period, can be blocked by
blacktea, and can have its duration affected by artifacts (Tear of Shallah and
Resumption Rune). Bonecrushers thus have to attempt a SmashedSkull+BashBrain
final combo, while hoping that the target is not on blackout immunity. This also
means that they have to establish a very savvy prone setup in advance in order
to first secure the damagedskull requirement and then bypass parry for the
finisher (or be reliant on a lucky beast spit paralysis). This report seeks to
make clear that the blackout kill condition has been met, and to facilitate the
option of blackout delivery on the combination prior to the finisher.
Secondarily, I am probing whether we may be receptive to more clarity over
blackout status in general.
[A:17 R: 0] Solution #1: At critical head wounds, make SmashedSkull blackout
 last 4 seconds (currently 3). Add a new line upon
 successful delivery of black via SmashedSkull (i.e.,
 does not hit immunity).
[A: 3 R: 8] Solution #2: Introduce a universal symptom line for when somebody
 blacks out and also when it ends, as similar to when
 you are notified of consciousness and aeon states.
Player Comments:
---[Shedrin on 2/8 @ 01:47 writes]:
Sure. Though I might support changing the requirement to something other than
blackout.
---[Demartel on 2/8 @ 02:23 writes]:
This change will do nothing really for bonecrushers, as blackout/allheale is not
a factor in a proper bashbrain setup. It will however open the door for every
class with easy blackouts to do so. Imagine a group fight where I am a
dreamweaver and I know exactly when your blackout starts and ends and can
extrapolate immunity from that, even account for artifact adjustment. You would
spend the majority of that group fight under blackout with very small windows of
not being under blackout. This also leads to much greater control of blackout
for kills like soulless, meteor, and other instakills in group situations.
---[Kaimanahi on 2/8 @ 03:07 writes]:
@Shedrin, open to suggestions; sprawled? @Demartel, yes, Solution 2 does enable
transparency for other classes who are actively using blackout as a mask. The
proposed change won't change how those classes approach the frequency of dealing
blackout or the motivations for doing so. The change would only verify what you
do mask, or, in the case of BC, that you have achieved the kill requirement. In
the examples that you give, Soulless has a buildup that is quite obvious, so if
you're not assuming that a blackout is a death fling thereafter then that's a
mistake. For meteor, you see that you have lost spheres, so the meteor cannot be
masked under blackout. For most all instakills, there is a second or third tic
that can be seen after the initiation.
---[Kaimanahi on 2/8 @ 04:08 writes]:
After getting some feedback from Veyils, I've adjusted Solution 1 to include
extending the SmashedSkull duration to 4s at critical wounds. I didn't realize
it was only 3s currently, so doing this allows for landing blackout in the prior
combo to BrainBash.
---[Shedrin on 2/8 @ 04:57 writes]:
DamagedThroat could work. Or just keep as blackout. As for the other concerns, I
don't think it's a big issue at all. You can already do those things. If
blackout spam is a concern, I think specific blackout abilities can (and have
been in the past) be looked at.
---[Falmiis on 2/9 @ 01:17 writes]:
Sure
---[Demartel on 2/9 @ 20:10 writes]:
I am ok with increasing Blackout to 4 seconds at Critical wounds
---[Xenthos on 2/13 @ 01:28 writes]:
I'm opposed to providing a third-party message when blackout ends, but I am fine
with extending blackout to 4s at critical wounds.
---[Shango on 2/15 @ 22:46 writes]:
Extended blackout to compensate for racial/arti deductions, or could just make
SmashedSkull blackout unaffected by them. Else removing the req from BrainBash
alltogther would be appreciated...as is I always recommend they just
blackout+insta in the same move to get around the immunity issue entirely.
---[Shuyin on 2/16 @ 02:19 writes]:
Solution 1 only.
---[Gero on 2/16 @ 06:33 writes]:
Solution 1 only
---[Ixion on 2/16 @ 22:40 writes]:
Solution 1 only is fine. I don't think a new delivery line is needed but not
opposed to it.
---[Lerad on 2/20 @ 12:33 writes]:
I'm late in commenting on this, but I think it's probably a better idea to move
away from lengthy blackouts and change the insta reqs. While +1s to the critical
blackout is probably fine (and I support solution 1), I just feel that the list
of things (from the problem statement) that affects blackout as an aff req for
an insta just seems daunting enough that I'm not sure if lengthening it will
help all that much... and lengthening it is also frustrating for the receiver,
too. Don't really have a good idea on what to change it to, though. Sorry.