Report 1585

Report #1585
Skillset: Aeromancy Skill: Staff
 Org: Aeromancers Status: Completed Mar 2017
Furies' Decision:
Solution 2 with a power cost.
Problem: Aeromancy's TWIRL STAFF currently gives nimbus cloud, which is a
defence that gives the aeromancer 1/8 lightning resist and a small chance to
proc a tiny amount of damage (double digits) whenever the aeromancer is hit.
This is both very random, because it is a reactive and completely useless,
because of how low the damage is. This report aims to change TWIRL STAFF into an
active ability that will see more use in fights.
[A: 0 R:10] Solution #1: Change TWIRL STAFF to an active ability taking 4s of
 equilibrium that knocks all enemies in the room off
 balance for 1.5s. Enemies who are already off balance
 are not affected.
[A:14 R: 0] Solution #2: Change TWIRL STAFF to an active ability taking 4s of
 equilibrium. Enemies in the room with the epilepsy
 affliction will be given a 1 second stun. No effect
 on enemies without epilepsy
[A: 0 R: 9] Solution #3: Change TWIRL STAFF to an active ability taking 4s of
 equilibrium that gives all allies in the room the
 nimbus cloud defence. Change the nimbus cloud defence
 to last 15 seconds. The next time each person with a
 nimbus cloud takes damage from an attack from someone
 in the same room, it will deal 20% of the damage
 taken back to the attacker. The nimbus cloud defence
 remains on each person until the 15 second duration
 is up and cannot be refreshed, but it cannot fire the
 retributive damage again until the next application.
Player Comments:
---[Wobou on 3/11 @ 21:34 writes]:
Solution 1 would be fine in a vacuum but since balance losses stack this means
that 3 aeros can take a whole group of enemies off balance permanently, you
could fix this by making it require balance to knock it but that makes the
ability a lot less useful. I like solution 2 and solution 3.
---[Xenthos on 3/13 @ 21:23 writes]:
So solution 3 would basically give your group an anti-AoE effect? Someone does
an AoE ability, like a song, and your entire group does 4% + 400 to them? Would
seem better to up the damage by a bit instead of turning it into another AoE
ability (which it currently is not). Is there a particular reason that
Aeromancers actually -need- any of this?
---[Shango on 3/15 @ 04:14 writes]:
No support for solution 3, since most allies that'd be fighting would most
likely already have said defense, so would be a waste. Support for other two
though
---[Demartel on 3/15 @ 19:48 writes]:
I am not in support of any of these. Solution 1 is asking to balance loss stack
all enemies in room, repeatedly. Solution 2 is asking to punish people for their
allies poor curing. Solution 3 is just asking to damage bomb/instakill any enemy
who hits with passive damage.
---[Demartel on 3/15 @ 20:26 writes]:
After talking with Wobou, I would accept Solution 2 if it worked the same as
Pyromancer Twirl. If you are afflicted with Epilepsy you take more damage, else
it gives you epilepsy. I don't mind asking for Parity, but this seems like
asking for Parity + more.
---[Falaeron on 3/15 @ 21:55 writes]:
I have adjusted solutions 1 and 3 based on comments here. The problem with mage
combat in general is that outside of their melds (e.g. in Ethereal or where
there are already other melders) there aren't a whole lot of things they can do.
This leads to a lot of them just pointing staff in these situations. I felt that
this was a good opportunity to change an almost useless skill and make it
situationally useful, even outside of melds.
---[Falaeron on 3/15 @ 22:03 writes]:
Solution 3 was intended as an anti-AoE skill, but I understand the concerns that
people have about the damage being too high, and I also took into consideration
the fact that the old solution could have been spammed. I have changed it to a
fixed duration that serves as "cooldown" for the skill to prevent it from being
spammed, even if the "charge" is used up. I have also changed the damage to be
entirely based on the incoming damage, so smaller passive effects like bard
songs will only do negligible damage back to the attacker, while larger attacks
like unleash/chemwood bombs will see a larger amount of damage returned. At 20%,
it will take 5 allies to roughly match the damage output of the original attack.
For comparison, typically two people with unholywater will be able to instantly
kill a mage using their unleash staff, though I understand this solution is more
on-demand.
---[Falaeron on 3/15 @ 22:18 writes]:
After further consideration, I also decreased the scaling and max scaling of the
damage in solution 2. Thematically this was inspired by the old chain lightning
skill and the motif of lightning jumping between targets and yes, mechanically
this was inspired by pyromancy's twirl staff. In practice I don't think we'll
see the scaling come into effect much since the aeromeld has no way of stopping
epilepsy from being cured via a stun or blocking affliction, but even if 6+
people are hit with it the damage on someone with 12420 health would still only
be 2242, which isn't that high considering this is on a 4s equilibrium.
---[Xenthos on 3/15 @ 22:21 writes]:
One of the issues I have with buffing skills to "work outside of melds" is that
they generally also work inside melds, too, where the buff really isn't
necessary. I can understand that concern, but is this really something that's
needed for Aeros in general? Or would you consider doing something that doesn't
work in an aero demesne? (I also note that that concern isn't part of your
problem and probably should be, if that's the underlying intent behind this
suggestion).
---[Falaeron on 3/15 @ 22:47 writes]:
In battles where there is one room where most of the fighting is taking place it
is actually very risky for the melder to stand directly in the same room. With a
4s equilibrium on these solutions, it provides a huge opportunity cost inside
the meld, while requiring the melder to actually put themselves in danger. There
are already other things that melders tend to need to be doing inside their
melds, most of which don't also require the melder to go into the room where the
fighting is actually taking place.
---[Xenthos on 3/15 @ 22:59 writes]:
But it gives a buff / offensive tool that -can- be used if you are in the room
(and sometimes aeros do actually fight in the room with the group). I'm just
going to have to end up going with "I don't see the need for this". It seems
like a wishlist for an unnecessary buff-- aeros are not in a bad place right
now, and it's not essential that every skill in a skillset be powerful.
---[Falaeron on 3/15 @ 23:03 writes]:
Changed solution 2 completely after further discussion with other envoys.
---[Shuyin on 3/16 @ 02:01 writes]:
Solution 2 only.
---[Wobou on 3/16 @ 12:28 writes]:
I support solution 2 only. When I initially looked at these I wasn't making the
proper comparisons between sol. 3 and Mag's org drink. I think it's too powerful
to be able to do things like see a bomb start and react to that with twirl
staff. The org drink can be timed that way as well but I believe it has a
substantial cooldown before you can do it again which this action wouldn't have.
In a group fight of the appropriate size this would become the new boulderblast
because you can assume that all of your allies are going to be hit regularly so
even if the goal is not to nuke one particular person you can possibly
contribute more AoE damage just by spamming this buff than you can through your
actual AoE spell.
---[Lerad on 3/18 @ 01:59 writes]:
I'm okay with the new solution 2, as the stun is locked behind an aff, and is
only 1s, so it's probably fine. But I'd like to just comment that I don't like
more stuns in the game. I think we want to be wary of falling back to giving
stuns for everything.
---[Eicia on 3/18 @ 23:40 writes]:
I think that the second solution would be the better option of the three.